Jump to content

Help pay for the hosting


Recommended Posts

Everyone,

This board is slow as hell, and even more so if you access it from outside of Thailand. It's driving me nuts! At least partially this can be alleviated by getting proper hosting.

A decent virtual server costs about 20$ per month.

My first reaction was to say "Sylvie, I have a job, let me pay for a server." And I'm still prepared to do it. However, what if something happens to me, or I lose said job, or who knows what else? As an engineer, I prefer a more robust solution.

I pledge that I will pay 5$ per month for a year toward the hosting of this board, if at least three other people pledge with me.

If more people want to contribute, that's great. Then Sylvie can either get better hosting or save the money for later.

The period of "one year" is rather random. I'm prepared to pay longer, but I think it would be good to have a date when we can re-evaluate and see how the board had developped.

Like many of the women (and hopefully men, too) here I'm immensely happy to have a place where I can have a civil discussion and talk about things that are taboo in most places. Yesterday, I had a very bad experience after a gym trial. I was really sad. I did not know who I could talk to about it because nobody in my life in Berlin can relate to it. But then I realised that I could just go home and write about it here. I did and I felt better.

This is absolutely worth paying the price of two capuccinos per month in order to keep the board alive and growing.

If you don't want to pitch in in public, that's fine, just PM me.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can pitch in.  Lawrence Kenshin uses a subscription service (sorry I cannot remember the name) so people can voluntarily support his awesome breakdowns - that works well - I do a buck a month cause I love them.  I see Sylvie has taken to other methods to support her fights now that the 100 fight goal has been smashed; not sure if there is wariness to ask for support but again but I'm game.  I imagine you fighters often don't have the budget to support what with working less to train more but I'm older now and happy to support in any way I can.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can pitch in.  Lawrence Kenshin uses a subscription service (sorry I cannot remember the name) so people can voluntarily support his awesome breakdowns - that works well - I do a buck a month cause I love them.  I see Sylvie has taken to other methods to support her fights now that the 100 fight goal has been smashed; not sure if there is wariness to ask for support but again but I'm game.  I imagine you fighters often don't have the budget to support what with working less to train more but I'm older now and happy to support in any way I can.

Lawrence Kenshin uses Patreon https://www.patreon.com/

One of the drawbacks to Patreon or GoFundMe or any other crowd funding site is that they take a percentage of the donations. Sylvie mentioned this in one of her blog posts http://8limbs.us/blog/go-fund-update-done-99-fights-accomplished

I know that Sylvie takes direct donations via PayPal, with the address: sylvie 8 limbs @ outlook . com  http://www.paypal.com/bg/webapps/mpp/send-money-online (just remove the spaces in the e-mail address).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A decent virtual server costs about 20$ per month.

My first reaction was to say "Sylvie, I have a job, let me pay for a server." And I'm still prepared to do it. However, what if something happens to me, or I lose said job, or who knows what else? As an engineer, I prefer a more robust solution.

I pledge that I will pay 5$ per month for a year toward the hosting of this board, if at least three other people pledge with me.

If more people want to contribute, that's great. Then Sylvie can either get better hosting or save the money for later.

The period of "one year" is rather random. I'm prepared to pay longer, but I think it would be good to have a date when we can re-evaluate and see how the board had developped.

Like many of the women (and hopefully men, too) here I'm immensely happy to have a place where I can have a civil discussion and talk about things that are taboo in most places. Yesterday, I had a very bad experience after a gym trial. I was really sad. I did not know who I could talk to about it because nobody in my life in Berlin can relate to it. But then I realised that I could just go home and write about it here. I did and I felt better.

This is absolutely worth paying the price of two capuccinos per month in order to keep the board alive and growing.

If you don't want to pitch in in public, that's fine, just PM me.

 

I can pitch in.  I imagine you fighters often don't have the budget to support what with working less to train more but I'm older now and happy to support in any way I can.

 

Lawrence Kenshin uses Patreon https://www.patreon.com/

 

So sorry I've been off-line and couldn't get to this sooner. I arrived in Chiang Mai with serious pain and have been crashed for the last 18 hours. But I'm back!

First of all, I am so happy that you all are vibing on this forum and I absolutely dream of it being a place where users feel it is theirs. Crowdsourcing support is a great way to do this, but it's somewhat complicated (and yes, a somewhat sensitive issue).

A number of problems immediately present are these:

1) I need to confirm with my design guy that a change in server will actually improve upload time, significantly.

2) I'm very happy to set something up where members can support the site (financially) if they like, and as an "opt in" selection. The options available for member-supported service will have to be explored further; those you mentioned and what Lawrence uses look pretty good.

3) This is probably the biggest concern, which is that, once moved to an upgraded server, it then becomes an expensive site, and we become dependent on donations to maintain it. As Darina pointed out, situations and personal circumstances change over time. The solution of having multiple members offering support is a good safety-net, but for this reason we can't move the site until the support is there. Otherwise the forum could be at risk in the future, as there is the real possibility that I personally cannot afford to keep it up on an advanced server. As it stands, I can maintain it, but an upgrade requires the support of more people - which is being offered, which is great, but we have to proceed on secure footing.

In any case, a quick fix isn't possible. I have to have my design guy clear a date on his calendar, as so far he's been donating a lot of the time put in for his technical support. I understand that it's frustrating to have the site be slow and, most likely, the more people on the site the slower it might be. But I do have to confirm with him that moving to an advanced server will, in fact, be a solution to the problem. I'll look into these different member-support options and talk with Deep and we'll move forward when the answers are clearer.

Thank you all again for your willingness to support and for wanting to make the site better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see Sylvie has taken to other methods to support her fights now that the 100 fight goal has been smashed; not sure if there is wariness to ask for support but again.

I am wary, mostly because there were a lot of harsh things said about me - which is ongoing - for even asking for support. The internet can be an abusive place. But then, that's part of what led me to want to create this place. I just want to be careful about how I frame community support and want the whole community to feel good about it, given the wide spectrum of views on the issue.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a little off topic but I have found that using different web browsers make a huge difference for loading time. My preferred browser is Chrome but both the blog and the forum load painfully slowly. For me the fastest loading browser is Internet Explorer followed by Firefox. The new site is gorgeous but it definitely loads slower than the old one.

Paypal has an option for a website owner to create a subscription service/recurring payment button their website. Paypal does charge a fee for the service. https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/get-started/recurring-payment-processing

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In any case, a quick fix isn't possible. I have to have my design guy clear a date on his calendar, as so far he's been donating a lot of the time put in for his technical support. I understand that it's frustrating to have the site be slow and, most likely, the more people on the site the slower it might be. But I do have to confirm with him that moving to an advanced server will, in fact, be a solution to the problem. I'll look into these different member-support options and talk with Deep and we'll move forward when the answers are clearer.

 

I'm sorry, I did not want to rush you and/or things. Don't feel pressured to act immediately. But know that there are at least (as of writing) three people willing to contribute towards a better server. When think that the move makes sense, let us know, we're here.

 

I am wary, mostly because there were a lot of harsh things said about me - which is ongoing - for even asking for support. The internet can be an abusive place. But then, that's part of what led me to want to create this place. I just want to be careful about how I frame community support and want the whole community to feel good about it, given the wide spectrum of views on the issue.

 

This is off topic, but I was definitely critical of it when I first saw it. But then I found 8limbs, and I realised just how much you give back to the community, not in money, but in time, which is even more precious. You have every right to ask for support because you don't "waste" the money, you create things with it that any athelete can profit from.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

But know that there are at least (as of writing) three people willing to contribute towards a better server. When think that the move makes sense, let us know, we're here.

 

Not at all! This is great news. I'd love to put the forum on more solid footing, and that members want to help put it there is exciting. In the next few days I should know more about what is possible. I'd love for this forum to be the best it can be.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not having any problems with loading the forum...I have avarage internet connection (10Mb/s) and the forum loads in a tolarable time-frame for me. The blog does load a bit slower than the old version, but it's not very bad.

I'm using Chrome and I'm not sure if it really helps, but enabling the one-color background instead of multi-color might help with the speed of the forum.

A faster server is always great, but I like the way Sylvie thinks - you never know how long there will be people to donate for the server costs....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

A faster server is always great, but I like the way Sylvie thinks - you never know how long there will be people to donate for the server costs....

 

Donors should be free to spend their money however they like. However a more expensive server also diverts money that people might donate to to Sylvie's fight journey. Personally I'd rather be patient with a slow forum and get Sylvie to more fights.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Now that we have a Patreon account set up if anyone would like to pledge to move the Roundtable to a proper server - we've had problems with the current server sending out email notifications, which prevents momentum on topics - let me know in a note (or here in comments) that your Patreon pledge is designated for moving the forum's server. If this is fully established we can go ahead and make it happen. 

This dovetails with my attempt to just make my writing sustainable, a much larger goal, but I'd like to upgrade the server as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Maybe I'm late to the dance but I encourage anyone that is thinking about it to donate through the Patreon link above.  Any amount would help. 

This forum/website is a full time job in and of itself.  Quality content/always updated/immensely interesting...

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Most Recent Topics

  • Latest Comments

    • Some Shocked, Depressed Some shocked the 3x FOTY Panpayak loses on ONE, knocked out. It's funny, you design a sport so that globalizable White Guys will beat Thai guys, and then fans are surprised that happens. It's baked into the DNA of the sport design. Some Reddit comments.    
    • The Chicken Wing Punch in Thailand my answer below to this Reddit question, which the moderators for some reason deleted. Who knows why, maybe some kind of AI filter, etc? This is a very interesting subject though, reflecting on the way techniques get preserved and passed on. Do people who do muay thai punch oddly? The author then went onto describe how they've been told by some that they punch like they are throwing an elbow, but that this is how their coach taught them. I assume you are talking about straights and crosses. In most examples, in Thailand this chicken wing punch honestly is likely just a collective bad habit developed out of bad padholding, often with wider and wider held pads (speculatively, sometimes because Thais hold for very large Westerners and don't want to take the full brunt of power all day long). It also has proliferated because Thailand's Muay Thai has moved further and further away from Western Boxing's influence, which once was quite pronounced (1960s-1990s, but reaching back to the 1920s). Today's Thai fighters really have lost well-formed punching in many cases. It has been put out there that this is the "Thai punch" (sometimes attributing it to some old Boran punching styles, or sometimes theoretically to how kicks have to be checked, etc), but Thais didn't really punch like this much 30 years ago if you watch fights from that time. It's now actually being taught in Thailand though, because patterns proliferate. People learn it from their padmen and krus (I've even heard of Thai krus correcting Westerners towards this), and it gets passed on down the coaching tree. Mostly this is just poorly formed striking that's both inaccurate and lacking in power, and has been spreading across Thailand the last couple of decades. There are Boran-ish punching styles that have the elbow up, but mostly, at least as I suspect, that's not what's happening. We've filmed with maybe (?) 100 legends and top krus of the sport and none of them punch with the "chicken wing" or teach it, as far as I can recall.
    • The BwO and the Muay Thai Fighter As Westerners and others seek to trace out the "system" of Muay Thai, bio-mechanically copying movements or techniques, organizing it for transmission and export, being taught by those further and further from the culture that generated it, what is missed are the ways in which the Thai Muay Thai fighter becomes like an egg, a philosophical egg, harboring a potential that cannot be traced. At least, one could pose this notion as an extreme aspect of the Thai fighting arts as they stand juxtaposed to their various systemizations and borrowings. D&G's Body Without Organs concept speculatively helps open this interpretation. Just leaving this here for further study and perhaps comment.   from: https://weaponizedjoy.blogspot.com/2023/01/deleuzes-body-without-organs-gentle.html Artaud is usually cited as the source of this idea - and he is, mostly (more on that in the appendix) - but, to my mind, the more interesting (and clarifying) reference is to Raymond Ruyer, from whom Deleuze and Guattari borrow the thematics of the egg. Consider the following passage by Ruyer, speaking on embryogenesis, and certain experiments carried out on embryos: "In contrast to the irreversibly differentiated organs of the adult... In the egg or the embryo, which is at first totally equipotential ... the determination [development of the embryo -WJ] distributes this equipotentiality into more limited territories, which develop from then on with relative autonomy ... [In embryogenesis], the gradients of the chemical substance provide the general pattern [of development]. Depending on the local level of concentration [of chemicals], the genes that are triggered at different thresholds engender this or that organ. When the experimenter cuts a T. gastrula in half along the sagittal plane, the gradient regulates itself at first like electricity in a capacitor. Then the affected genes generate, according to new thresholds, other organs than those they would have produced, with a similar overall form but different dimensions" (Neofinalism, p.57,64). The language of 'gradients' and 'thresholds' (which characterize the BwO for D&G) is taken more or less word for word from Ruyer here. D&G's 'spin' on the issue, however, is to, in a certain way, ontologize and 'ethicize' this notion. In their hands, equipotentiality becomes a practice, one which is not always conscious, and which is always in some way being undergone whether we recognize it or not: "[The BwO] is not at all a notion or a concept but a practice, a set of practices. You never reach the Body without Organs, you can't reach it, you are forever attaining it, it is a limit" (ATP150). You can think of it as a practice of 'equipotentializing', of (an ongoing) reclaiming of the body from any fixed or settled form of organization: "The BwO is opposed not to the organs but to that organization of the organs called the organism" (ATP158). Importantly, by transforming the BwO into a practice, D&G also transform the temporality of the BwO. Although the image of the egg is clarifying, it can also be misleading insofar as an egg is usually thought of as preceding a fully articulated body. Thus, one imagines an egg as something 'undifferentiated', which then progressively (over time) differentiates itself into organs. However, for D&G, this is not the right way to approach the BwO. Instead, the BwO are, as they say, "perfectly contemporary, you always carry it with you as your own milieu of experimentation" (ATP164). The BwO is not something that 'precedes' differentiation, but operates alongside it: a potential (or equipotential ethics) that is always available for the making: "It [the BwO] is not the child "before" the adult, or the mother "before" the child: it is the strict contemporaneousness of the adult, of the adult and the child". Hence finally why they insist that the BwO is not something 'undifferentiated', but rather, that in which "things and organs are distinguished solely by gradients, migrations, zones of proximity." (ATP164)
  • The Latest From Open Topics Forum

    • In my experience, 1 pair of gloves is fine (14oz in my case, so I can spar safely), just air them out between training (bag gloves definitely not necessary). Shinguards are a good idea, though gyms will always have them and lend them out- just more hygienic to have your own.  2 pairs of wraps, 2 shorts (I like the lightweight Raja ones for the heat), 1 pair of good road running trainers. Good gumshield and groin-protector, naturally. Every time I finish training, I bring everything into the shower (not gloves or shinnies, obviously) with me to clean off the (bucketsfull in my case) of sweat, but things dry off quickly here outside of the monsoon season.  One thing I have found I like is smallish, cotton briefs for training (less cloth, therefore sweaty wetness than boxers, etc.- bring underwear from home- decent, cotton stuff is strangely expensive here). Don't weigh yourself down too much. You might want to buy shorts or vests from the gym(s) as (useful) souvenirs. I recommend Action Zone and Keelapan, next door, in Bangkok (good selection and prices):  https://www.google.com/maps/place/Action+Zone/@13.7474264,100.5206774,17z/data=!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x30e29931ee397e41:0x4c8f06926c37408b!2sAction+Zone!8m2!3d13.7474212!4d100.5232523!16s%2Fg%2F1hm3_f5d2!3m5!1s0x30e29931ee397e41:0x4c8f06926c37408b!8m2!3d13.7474212!4d100.5232523!16s%2Fg%2F1hm3_f5d2?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
    • Hey! I totally get what you mean about pushing through—it can sometimes backfire, especially with mood swings and fatigue. Regarding repeated head blows and depression, there’s research showing a link, especially with conditions like CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). More athletes are recognizing the importance of mental health alongside training. 
    • If you need a chill video editing app for Windows, check out Movavi Video Editor. It's super easy to use, perfect for beginners. You can cut, merge, and add effects without feeling lost. They’ve got loads of tutorials to help you out! I found some dope tips on clipping videos with Movavi. It lets you quickly cut parts of your video, so you can make your edits just how you want. Hit up their site to learn more about how to clip your screen on Windows and see how it all works.
    • Hi all, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be traveling to Thailand soon for just over a month of traveling and training. I am a complete beginner and do not own any training gear. One of the first stops on my trip will be to explore Bangkok and purchase equipment. What should be on my list? Clearly, gloves, wraps, shorts and mouthguard are required. I would be grateful for some more insight e.g. should I buy bag gloves and sparring gloves, whether shin pads are worthwhile for a beginner, etc. I'm partiularly conscious of the heat and humidity, it would make sense to pack two pairs of running shoes, two sets of gloves, several handwraps and lots of shorts. Any nuggets of wisdom are most welcome. Thanks in advance for your contributions!   
    • Have you looked at venum elite 
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      1.4k
    • Total Posts
      11.2k
×
×
  • Create New...